31 Creating Your Social Network

In WebCenter Spaces, Connections provides a means of establishing a social network that is comprised of your work friends and associates. Once you have connected with others, you can set up your working environment to provide different levels of access to those who are and are not connected to you. For example, you can enable access to your views of Profile, Message Board, Activity Stream, and Feedback to just your connections, leaving the unconnected without access. For Message Board and Feedback, you can give everyone view access, but limit post access to just your connections or to a limited set of your connections through a connections list.

This chapter provides an overview of Connections task flows and steps you through the tasks you can accomplish using them. It includes the following subsections:

This chapter is intended for users assigned an application role that includes, minimally, the permission People Connections: Connect with People. To work with connections lists, users must also be granted the permission People Connections: Update People Connections Data.

Users who plan to edit task flow properties must be assigned a role that also includes the permission Edit Pages. In a Space (other than the Home Space), users must be assigned a role that includes the permission Edit Page Access and Structure.

31.1 What You Should Know About Connections

Connections provides a means of collecting your business friends and contacts into a social network. It furnishes tools for managing your own connections and viewing the connections of others. Using People Connections Preferences, you can grant differing levels of access to those who are and are not your connections. For example, you can limit view privileges on your Profile to just your connections or enable your connections to view certain sections of your Profile, while hiding those sections from users who are not your connections.

Connections - Detailed View for photos and quick access to your connections and to features for inviting new connections, managing existing connections, and organizing your connections into lists (Figure 31-3)

Connections task flows have associated properties that you can use to control the appearance and behavior of a task flow instance. For example, you can use Connections properties to specify the number of connections to show or the number of rows to show in Connections - Card and Connections - Quick View task flows.

From the Grant View Access to dropdown list, select the users who can view your list of connections:

Everyone—All users, including users who are not logged in, can see information about your connections.

Authenticated Users—Only users who are logged in can view your connections.

User's Connections—Only you and your Connections can view your connections.

User Only—Only you can view your connections.

Note:

The Grant View Access to dropdown is disabled in your view if the administrator disables user override for these settings in Connections configuration settings. For more information, see Section 6.4.3.3, "Configuring Connections."

Select Accept Invitations Automatically to automatically accept invitations to connect with another user.

Clear this checkbox to leave yourself the option of accepting, refusing, or ignoring an invitation to connect with another user.

Click OK.

31.3 Adding a Connections Task Flow to a Page

31.4 Setting Up Your Social Network

Connections provides the core features for building and visualizing your social network. Use Connections task flows to invite other users to connect, to accept connection invitations, to create connections lists, and to remove obsolete connections.

Note:

The level of access you have to a connection is determined by the People Connections defaults set by the application administrator, a given connection's People Connections Preference settings, and properties set on a Connections task flow instance.

31.4.1 Viewing Your Connections

You can view your connections in any Connections task flow. One of these is always available on the Connections page, which you can navigate to by clicking your user name wherever it appears in the application. In large lists of connections, you can use a search feature to locate a particular connection.

This section describes how to access the Connections page and view or search through your connections. It includes the following subsections:

In the Filter field, enter the user name of the connection, and click the Find connection icon next to the field.

Tip:

Click a connection name to open a Profile dialog and view profile details.

To exit the search, click the Clear icon that appears to the right of the Filter field (Figure 31-7).

Figure 31-7 Clear Icon Next to Filter Field

31.4.2 Inviting Others to Connect

Connecting to another user potentially provides view access to that user's personal Profile and Activity Stream, and view and post access to the user's Message Board. The level of access you have to a connection is determined by the People Connections defaults set by the application administrator, the individual user's People Connections Preference settings, and properties set on the task flow instance.

On the Connections page, click the Invite People link to open the Invite People dialog.

In the Find User field, enter the user name of the person you want to invite to be your connection, then click the Find user icon (Figure 31-8).

Figure 31-8 Invite People Dialog

Click the Invite link next to the user of interest to open the Invitation Message dialog (Figure 31-9).

Figure 31-9 Invitation Message Dialog

Enter a connection invitation or use the default message.

Optionally, from the Select connection lists dropdown, select one or more connections lists to which to add the user once the invitation is accepted.

Click Invite.

If the person you have invited set Preferences to automatically accept all invitations, you are connected immediately. Otherwise, the invitation becomes available in the recipient's view of the Connections page.

31.4.3 Viewing Invitations to Connect

You can view the invitations you have sent and received in the Connections - Detailed View task flow and on the Connections page. This section describes the Connections page case. It includes the following subsections:

31.4.5.1 Creating a Connections List

You can create a connections list using the Connections and Connections - Detailed View task flows and on the Connections page. This section describes how to create a connections list on the Connections page.

Click Remove from List next to the user to open the Remove from List dialog (Figure 31-18).

Figure 31-18 Remove from List Dialog

Select one or more lists from which to remove the selected user, or select My Connections and All My Lists to remove the selected user from all lists and as your connection.

Click Save and Close.

Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you are done.

Click OK to close the Organize Connections and Lists dialog.

31.4.5.4 Deleting a Connections List

When you delete a Connections list, you are not deleting the connections you added to the list. You are deleting only the selected grouping, that is, the list itself. The connections that were on the deleted list continue to be your connections.

You can delete a Connections list from the Connections page and from the Connections and Connections - Detailed View task flows. This section describes the Connections page case.

Click the Actions icon next to the Connections list you want to delete, and select Delete List from the resulting menu (Figure 31-19).

Figure 31-19 Delete List Option on Actions Menu

In the resulting confirmation dialog, click Yes to delete the list.

Click OK to close the Organize Connections and Lists dialog.

31.4.6 Removing a Connection

Included in the process of managing your connections is the occasional necessity of weeding people out: they may leave your group or the company, or there may no longer be a compelling reason to stay connected.

Controls for removing a connection are available through the Connections page and the Connections and Connections - Detailed View task flow. This section describes the Connections Page case.

31.5.1 What You Should Know About Connections Task Flow Properties

When you set property values on a Connections task flow, you are affecting only the task flow instance on which the value is set. Other instances of the same task flow are not affected by such changes.

All properties on the Parameters and Display Options tabs provide access to an Expression Language (EL) editor, which you can use to select or specify a variable value instead of a constant value. Click the Edit icon next to a property field to open the editor. For more information about using the editor and for descriptions of common EL expressions, see Appendix B, "Expression Language Expressions."

31.5.2 Connections Task Flow Parameters

Table 31-1 describes the parameters that are unique to Connections task flows.

Table 31-1 Connections Task Flow Parameters

Property

Description

Allow Remove

A Boolean value representing whether a control is available on the task flow for removing a connection

Enter either true or false.

This value is honored only when the task flow instance is rendered in list format. For more information, see Profile Format.

This parameter is associated with the Connections - Card task flow.

Connection List Name

The name of a grouped list of connections

Use this parameter to limit the display of connections to those on the specified Connections list.

Enter the name of a Connections list.

This parameter is associated with the Connections - Card task flow.

Current View

The view to display by default

Valid values include:

connections—(the default value) a list of connections

receivedInvitations—a list of connections invitations you received

sentInvitations—a list of connections invitations you sent

people—a search field for finding people with whom to connect

When users access the task flow instance, the view specified here is the first one they see. All selections, except people, provide controls for navigating to the application default view (connections). Selecting people provides search and select controls for inviting other users to connect.

This parameter is associated with the Connections task flow.

Filter Pattern

A value to act as a filter against task flow content

For example, to show only those connections with a user name that includes the term pat (including patrick or sripathy), enter pat in the Filter Pattern field.

This parameter is associated with the Connections - Card task flow.

Hide Footer

A Boolean value representing whether to hide the task flow footer

Use this parameter to show or hide a link at the bottom of the task flow that enables users (when shown) to navigate to a detailed view of Connections when the number of available connections exceeds the number of connections that are shown.

Select the checkbox (#{true}) to hide the task flow footer.

Clear the checkbox (#{false}) to show the task flow footer.

This parameter is associated with the following task flows:

Connections – Card

Connections – Quick View

Hide Header

A Boolean value representing whether to hide the task flow header

Use this parameter to show or hide a link at the bottom of the task flow that enables users (when shown) to navigate to a detailed view of Connections when the number of available connections exceeds the number of connections that are shown.

Select the checkbox (#{true}) to hide the task flow header.

Clear the checkbox (#{false}) to show the task flow header.

This parameter is associated with the Connections - Quick View task flow.

Number of Columns

The number of columns to show in the task flow

For example, with six connections to show, a value of 2 means those connections are shown in two columns with three rows.

When a user's number of connections exceeds the number of connections allowed after column and row restrictions are applied, Previous and Next links are shown, enabling the user to page through his connections. (See also Number of Rows.)

This parameter is associated with the following task flows:

Connections - Card

Connections - Quick View

Number of Connections per page

The number of connections to show in the given task flow instance

Enter a numeric value, such as 10, 2, 15, and so on.

The number you enter here limits the number of connections that are shown in the task flow instance. If a user's number of connections exceeds the specified value, a More link is shown, enabling the user to navigate to a full view of the Profile page's Connections subpage.

This parameter is ignored if both the number of rows and the number of columns have been specified together as parameters.

This parameter is associated with the following task flows:

Connections - Card

Connections - Detailed View

Connections - Quick View

Number of Rows

The number of rows to show in the task flow

For example, with six connections to show and a value of 2 for Number of Columns, a value of 2 for Number of Rows means connections are shown in two columns with two rows. That is, four connections are shown.

When a user's number of connections exceeds the number of connections allowed after column and row restrictions are applied, Previous and Next links are shown, enabling the user to page through his connections. (See also, Number of Columns.)

This parameter is associated with the following task flows:

Connections - Card

Connections - Quick View

Number of Rows (list layout)

The number of rows to show in a list layout of the Connections task flow

This value is honored only when the view of the Connections task flow is set to connections. (For more information, see Current View.)

When a user's number of connections exceeds the number of connections allowed after row restrictions are applied, Previous and Next links are shown, enabling the user to page through his connections.

This parameter is associated with the Connections task flow.

Profile Format

The layout style for the task flow

Enter one of the following:

vcard—Renders each connection in a virtual business card and includes the connection's user name and status message and quick-access buttons for interacting with your connections.

iconic—Renders the connection's personal profile photo and shows the user name below the photo.

This value is set automatically (#{securityContext.userName}). Do not edit this value.

This parameter is associated with the following task flows:

Connections - Quick View

Connections - Detailed View

User Name

The ID of the user to show in the task flow

This value is set automatically (#{securityContext.userName}). Do not edit this value.

This parameter is associated with the following task flows:

Connections - Card

Connections

31.5.3 Using Properties to Configure a Connections Task Flow Instance

This section provides examples of how you use property values to affect the behavior of a given task flow instance. Because you make these changes in page edit mode (Oracle Composer), they affect all users' views of the affected task flow instance.

31.5.3.1 Adding a Remove Button to Connections - Card

By default, the Connections - Card task flow does not provide a control for permanently removing a connection. You can use the Allow Remove property on a Connections - Card task flow instance to render a Remove button next to each listed connection. Allow Remove is honored when the task flow's Profile Format property is set to List or Virtual Business Card.

To enable the removal of a connection in a Connections - Card task flow:

Use the Current View property to specify the initial view of a Connections task flow instance. For most views, users can change the default you specify here. The exception is the people view, in which there are no controls for switching to a different view.

31.5.3.4 Limiting the Number of Displayed Connections

The Connections - Card, Connections - Detailed View, and Connections - Quick View task flows provide the property Number of Connections per page for limiting the number of connections to show at a time. If a user's number of connections exceeds the specified value, a link is shown at the bottom of the task flow to enable the user to navigate to a full view of the Profile page's Connections subpage.

31.5.3.5 Specifying Numbers of Rows and Columns

The Connections, Connections - Card, and Connections - Quick View task flows provide properties for controlling the number of columns and rows to show at a time. When column and row values are both specified, and a user's number of connections exceeds the specified values, Previous and Next links are shown, enabling the user to page through his connections.

For Connections - Card and Connections - Quick View, enter a number for Number of Rows.

For Connections - Card and Connections - Quick View, enter a numeric value in the Number of Columns field to control the number of columns to show.

Click OK.

31.5.3.6 Applying a Filter to a Connections - Card Task Flow Instance

The Filter Pattern property enables you to apply a filtering term that limits the display of connections in a Connections - Card task flow instance to only those who meet the filtering criteria. For example, to show only those connections with a user name that includes the term pat (including patrick or sripathy), enter pat for the Filter Pattern property.

The filter is applied to all of the information in a given card, so you can filter against things like the user's job title or name. For example, entering the term manager, ensures that only those connections whose job title includes manager are displayed in the task flow instance.

The Profile Format property provides options for controlling the arrangement of connections within a Connections - Card task flow instance. Both the placement of information and the amount of information shown are affected by your selection.

To select a display format for a Connections - Card task flow instance:

Virtual Business Card—Renders each connection in a virtual business card and includes the connection's user name and status message and quick-access buttons for interacting with your connections (Figure 31-23).

Figure 31-23 Connections - Card in Virtual Business Card Format

Iconic—Renders the connection's personal profile photo and shows the user name below the photo (Figure 31-24).